And Playing the Role of Herself (Frankiana)

CHAPTER TWELVE

(e/n: 🚨This story contains a love/sexual relationship between two women. If this bothers you, please, skip this chapter, or move along, there's lots of other good fiction out there. 🚨)

"Come on, Diana, four more. That's it, three...you've got it. Two...and one more...alright, nice job!"

Shawn plucked the twenty pound dumbbells from my hands as though they were toothpicks, smiling down at me with a practiced, encouraging smile. "Take a sixty second break and then we'll go for another fifteen."

I groaned and let my arms dangle behind my head, arching my back over the exercise ball I was laying on top of for my triceps curls. "You're evil, you know that, right?"

"That's what you pay me for." He smiled again, this time a little less professional and more genuine. "You're the one who wanted a last minute, butt-kicking workout. I'm just giving you what you wanted."

"Well, I'm an idiot," I mumbled, and I raised my hands up to receive the dumbbells again, blowing out a few deep breaths before lowering the weights behind my head slowly, and then raising them up again.

I was on my tenth rep when the muffled rings of my phone interrupted my concentration, and I paused.

"Oh no you don't. Five more, and then you can answer it," Shawn said, picking up the phone from where it sat on my towel and waving it enticingly in front of my face.

I scowled, too breathless to call him all the names running through my mind, and pushed out five more reps as fast as I could, my arms shaking crazily on the last two. He finally handed me the phone after taking the weights from my hands, and after a moment of fumbling, I finally got the thing open.

"Yeah," I gasped, closing my eyes and draping a sweaty arm across my face.

There was a moment of silence, and then, "Am I interrupting something?"

I didn't think it was possible, but my heart rate picked up even more, and it took me a moment before I could respond. "I'm at the gym. Trying to work off some...frustration," I panted finally. I knew the smile on my face was giving Shawn some ideas, but I couldn't help it. "Where are you? I thought you had a dinner thing tonight."

Franki had called while I was on my way to the airport with Perry and Sky, telling me the bad news that her presence was required tonight at a dinner party at her agent's house, and she didn't know when she would be home. Perry and Sky were in the car with me so I couldn't yell and scream in frustration as I'd wanted to, but the moment I'd dropped them off, I'd called Shawn and asked for a workout that would leave me exhausted.

I could hear the smile in her voice when she answered my question. "I told Mark I'm not feeling well. I think I might have gotten food poisoning this afternoon. So...I find myself suddenly free for the evening."

I sat up. "Tell me you're not kidding."

She laughed. "I'm not kidding. When can you get over here? I'll cook you dinner."

"Give me an hour," I said, reaching for my towel and ignoring Shawn's look of disapproval. "Tops."

She laughed again, low and breathless. The sound tickled down my spine as though she were here, touching me. "Hurry."

I snapped the phone shut and stood, giving Shawn a smile that made him blink. "Looks like I won't need that workout after all."

***

I slammed the car door and headed up the drive, forcing myself to walk instead of sprint like I wanted to. I felt giddy with anticipation, like a teenager with a first crush, and when Franki opened the door in a button-down shirt, a denim shorts and no shoes, the smile I gave her made my face ache.